Jensen Ackles will be featured prominently in the final season of The Boys, returning as his Soldier Boy character. Following the conclusion of Season 4 with a surprise cameo from Ackles, Soldier Boy will return in Season 5 to have more of his relationship with Homelander (Antony Starr) explored.

Per Gamesradar+, series showrunner and executive producer Eric Kripke commented on the future of Soldier Boy on The Boys at San Diego Comic-Con 2024. Kripke explained how it was realized that there was so much interesting potential for the story in bringing back Soldier Boy for Season 5. Additionally, Kripke teased how Soldier Boy will gunning to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) in the final season, suggesting that he’ll be serving as more of an ally to Homelander.

“You know, what we realized was we really hadn’t explored the father-son relationship much between Homelander and Soldier Boy,” Kripke said. “There’s a lot of material there, how Soldier Boy feels about Homelander, how Homelander feels about his dad, and so we really wanted to dig into that relationship.”

“There’s a lot of material there, how Soldier Boy feels about Homelander, how Homelander feels about his dad.”

Kripke added, “Soldier Boy is really driven to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 Butcher after Butcher betrayed him in Season 3. So he’s just an excellent antagonist, to switch sides and basically, you know, to be with the Supes.”

Season 5 will be the last for The Boys, but it won’t be the end of Ackles’ run in the role of Soldier Boy. At SDCC, it was also announced that The Boys is getting a prequel series that will star Ackles’ Soldier Boy alongside Aya Cash’s Stormfront. Notably, Ackles had a cameo as Soldier Boy in the first season of Gen V, so there’s always the chance that he could pop up in Season 2 of that spinoff show as well.

Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy Is a Fan Favorite Character

Ackles debuted in the role of Soldier Boy, a Captain America parody character, in Season 3 of The Boys. While it was revealed that Soldier Boy is the biological father of Homelander, the two Supes did not get along very well upon meeting. By the end of Season 3, Soldier Boy had again been put under sedation, and the character sat out most all of Season 4 before popping up in a post-credit scene, teasing his return in the next season. Kripke confirmed at SDCC that Ackles will be a series regular as Soldier Boy in Season 5.

“Soldier Boy is a fan favorite,” Kripke also said in a bonus video released for fans by Prime Video at the end of Season 4. “So it made perfect sense that once HL has control of the government, he would learn that his father is on ice. And this won’t be the last we see of him.”

The first four seasons of The Boys are streaming on Prime Video while Season 5 is not expected to arrive until 2026.